


Come Morning Light

by FamiliarBoomerang (ThisIsTheDungeonThatNeverEnds)



Series: No One Can Hurt You Now [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst and Feels, Betaed, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Forehead Kisses, Holding Hands, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, POV Mai (Avatar), Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28555857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisIsTheDungeonThatNeverEnds/pseuds/FamiliarBoomerang
Summary: Mai’s face was well-trained in the art of hiding emotions, but her trembling hands, balled into fists at her side, betrayed her.“What do you mean sent away,” she asked without wanting the answer she feared she already had.--Mai needs to know what happened to Zuko, but no one's telling her anything.
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: No One Can Hurt You Now [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2095680
Comments: 2
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

Weak. Mediocre. Disappointing. 

These were all words Mai was used to hearing in reference to Prince Zuko. She’d learned to tune them out. Ignore them. She knew they weren’t true. If compassion and kindness were what the snooty grownups in the palace called weakness, then maybe Zuko wasn’t the one with the problem.

She dared not say so aloud, except to Zuko himself: reassurances whispered in his ear beside the pond, while Ty Lee and Azula snickered at them from across the courtyard and Firelady Ursa looked on with a smile. Zuko may have looked like Firelord Ozai, but he took after his mother’s nature.

And now that she was gone, Mai and General Iroh were the only ones on Zuko’s side.

Shameful. Spineless. Disgraceful.

These were words that made Mai's ears perk up. Because as much as the generals and councilors looked down on Zuko, they had never spoken with quite so much blatant contempt for the Crown Prince.

She knew better than to ask what was happening. No one would tell her anything. She would be brushed off as being a pesky child and reprimanded for not minding her own business.

So, ever the obedient generals daughter, she stayed quiet. Unheard and unnoticed, she slipped through the palace halls, lingering just to the safe side of too long so that she might “accidentally overhear” the latest gossip concerning the prince.

“Disgraceful display of cowardice,” one councilwoman said. 

“Can never truly be our prince,” said a palace guard.

Try as she did, Mai couldn’t get close enough to garner many details from the hushed conversations of the adults.

Something about a war meeting? Speaking out of turn? An…an Agni Kai? Had she heard that right? But Zuko was only thirteen! Challenging someone under the age of sixteen to a fire duel was almost unheard of. Had what Zuko done truly been that awful?

Frustrated at having no luck eavesdropping on adults, Mai resolved to learn from a first hand source.

“Excuse me, guard?” She said in her most proper important person voice, “Where could I find Prince Zuko?”

The guard scowled. “Zuko is not allowed visitors at this time.”

Zuko. Not _His Highness_. Not _Prince_ Zuko. Just…just Zuko.

Things were worse than Mai anticipated and she felt a knot growing in her stomach.

Disregarding what the guard had said, Mai went in search of Zuko herself.

He wasn’t at his favorite spot by the pond feeding turtleducks.

He wasn’t in the kitchen smuggling fruit tarts.

He wasn’t at the training arena practicing his fire bending.

He wasn’t in the library studying his history lessons.

He wasn’t in the courtyard with Azula and Ty Lee either. 

The two girls were chasing each other around the fountain. Every so often as Mai stood and watched, Azula would punch a flame towards Ty Lee, who would cartwheel out of the way. 

Both girls froze when they noticed Mai watching them from under a tree.

Azula’s expression was cool but otherwise unreadable. Ty Lee’s eyes were wide and her lips were pouted. They glanced at each other before Ty Lee sprinted away.

Mai approached the fountain where Azula stood with her arms crossed.

“Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on with Zuko or am I supposed to piecemeal it together from whispered gossip myself?”

Azula held her chin in mock thoughtfulness. “Well, I could tell you, but that would he less fun.”

Mai glared at the princess and tapped her foot impatiently. “Azula.”

Azula sighed. “Very well. If you have to know. Zuko's being sent away.”

Mai’s face was well-trained in the art of hiding emotions, but her trembling hands, balled into fists at her side, betrayed her.

“What do you mean sent away,” she asked without wanting the answer she feared she already had.

“I mean banished.” Azula giggled, actually giggled, when Mai's eyes widened. “I know, right? He really went and did it this time.”

“What did he do!” Mai demand, raising her voice and lunging forward inches away from Azula’s face. “What could possibly be so bad that the Firelord would banish his own son? His heir!”

“YOUNG LADY!”

The girls both turned toward the source of the scolding voice: Lady Tashi, Azula’s governess.

The old woman with sunken eyes and gray streaked hair pulled back tightly enough to stretch the skin of her forehead grabbed Mai by her arm and dragged her back. “You may have the privilege of familiarity with Her Highness, but Azula is still the princess! I suggest you learn your manners, lest you end up like Zuko.”

“Aw, you and Zuzu could get banished together,” Azula teased with a smirk. “How romantic.”

Mai wrenched her arm away from Tashi and ran.

She ran, caring neither for her destination nor the consequences of doing so, never mind the tears flowing down her reddened face. 

“Mai! Wait!”

Mai ignored the voice and kept running. Maybe if she ran fast enough and far enough, she could escape the wrath of Tashi as well as whoever was calling out to her. 

“Mai! You aren’t in trouble! Please stop!”

Maybe she could escape the palace, maybe even Caldera. Maybe she could go grab Zuko first. Run with him until they reached the edge of the world.

“I just want you talk to you!”

Maybe being banished with Zuko wouldn’t be so bad. Everyone here was so…

“PLEASE MAI!”

So…

“STOP!”

She stopped. She tripped over her own feet and fell to her knees, gasping for breath, feeling as though she truly had run to the edge of the world.

Footsteps and panting behind her.

She didn’t care.

“Are you alright, dear child?”

No.

She sniffled and wiped her face with her long sleeves.

By the time the person she didn’t care about knelt down beside her, she’d regained control of her tear-swollen face and stared straight ahead, afraid to meet another pair of eyes.

A heavy, gentle hand grasped her shoulder.

Mai looked up.

General Iroh looked down at her, his own eyes as red as hers, a small sad smile graced his lips.

“Walk with me, Mai. You deserve to know the truth about what’s happening to Prince Zuko.”

So Mai stood on wobbly legs, holding tightly to the general’s arm to steady herself.

And he told her everything.


	2. Chapter 2

Mai knew the palace like the back of her hand. Hundreds of games of hide and explode with Azula, Ty Lee, and Zuko had trained her well. She knew which guards to avoid, which ones were unobservant enough to sneak past, and which ones simply could not care less about a twelve year old girl lurking around the palace at midnight.

Mai’s lips tugged up in the slightest of smiles when she found Zuko’s chamber door unguarded. Maybe Firelord Ozai deemed him undeserving of his own post, seeing as how this would be his last night spent in the palace.

Unless…

No. The entire concept of Zuko finding the Avatar was a joke and everyone knew it.

The heavy double doors were loud, but she managed to open them just enough to slip inside and close them behind her unnoticed.

She breathed a sigh of relief once she was safe.

But relief didn’t last long.

A quiet whimper came from the enormous bed in the center of the room.

Slowly and carefully as not to disturb the sleeping prince (he _was_ still a prince) she approached the bed. She covered her mouth to stifle her gasp.

The bandage covered most of the left side of Zuko’s face, and dripping beads of sweat dotted what skin was exposed.

Iroh had told her what had happened. But words didn’t prepare her to see it.

Zuko groaned, his face contorted in anguish. He balled his fists in the loose silk sheets.

For a moment, Mai considered waking him. But what if he couldn’t go back to sleep afterwards? He would only be in more pain awake, and Mai couldn’t bare the thought of causing him more suffering. 

So she let him sleep. She gently laid her and on his tight fist, and it loosened under her touch. 

And so she sat there on Zuko’s bed as he slept. Watching over him. Keeping him safe.

Squeezing his hand when he tightened his grip on his covers.

Pulling the sheet down when he began to sweat and back up when he shivered.

Blotting the tears from his face with her sleeve…ignoring her own.

Most of all, making sure that, on his last night in his own home, in his own bed, he wasn’t alone.

Loneliness was something Mai knew all too well, after all.

To her parents she was a trophy to look pretty; to be barely seen and to never heard. To her “friends” she was a way to pass the time; not truly valued for her company.

But to Zuko…to Zuko she had always hoped she was important. He was important to her after all; one of the only things in her life that was. He was the only actually good person she knew in Caldera.

And Mai was about to lose that. About to lose _him_. Forever.

Maybe it was selfish, she thought, to wish that he could stay. He was too golden for this stupid palace.

Golden like the sunlight that came peaking through the curtains before Mai even realized how much time had passed, how long she’d sat there just holding Zuko’s hand.

A fire bender rises with the sun, she remembered, so Zuko would probably be awake soon.

Mai slid off of the bed and slowly unfurled her fingers from Zuko’s hand. 

His weight shifted.

His uncovered eye peeked open.

“M…mai?” Zuko’s voice was hoarse and strained.

Mai froze. What if someone asked him if she’d been here? He wouldn’t betray her trust, but what if they forced him to confess? Was it possible to get him in even more trouble? Never mind that SHE would most certainly be punished.

Azula’s words echoed in her thoughts.

_You and Zuzu could get banished together. How romantic._

She’d follow him if he wanted her to. But that was just it.

He wouldn’t want her to.

So she leaned down and gave him a tender kiss on his forehead just above his right brow.

“I was never here.”

Maybe he would think it was a dream, she thought as she headed towards the door.

Maybe he would forget her entirely in his new life, she hoped wouldn’t be true as the doors creaked open and she slipped out as easily as she slipped in.

Her fingers lingered on the door handle after it had closed.

“Goodbye, Zuko.”

She pretended not to hear Zuko speak as she released the door and walked away expressionless.

“Goodbye, Mai.”


End file.
